US asks court to toss lawsuit alleging Army failed to stop Maine’s deadliest mass shooting

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S. government wants a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from survivors and relatives of the victims of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, who say the Army failed them by not intervening before the killings.

The families allege the government was negligent in failing to act on warning signs displayed by the shooter, an Army reservist.

Eighteen people were killed when the 40-year-old reservist opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar and grill in Lewiston in October 2023. An independent commission appointed by Maine’s governor later concluded that there were numerous opportunities for intervention by both Army officials and civilian law enforcement.

In a filing Thursday in Maine federal court, the government urged a judge to toss the lawsuit, saying the court lacks the authority to hear the case and that the families’ claims don’t meet the legal standard to move forward.

The lawsuit alleges that the Army was negligent when it failed to properly investigate the shooter’s mental condition. But the government says the shooter was “solely responsible” for the attack and the government should not be held liable for his actions.

Attorneys for 100 survivors and victims’ family members announced the filing of the lawsuit last year. They then refiled their lawsuit in September following a U.S. Department of Defense watchdog report that faulted the Army for a high rate of failure to report violent threats by service members.

“Unfortunately, the government’s motion was predictable and expected. The government’s motion is a lengthy denial of any legal responsibility for broken promises to protect the community it pledges to defend. We look forward to filing our response,” said Travis Brennan and Ben Gideon, attorneys for the families, in a Friday statement.

The lawsuit faults the Army, U.S. Department of Defense and Keller Army Community Hospital for negligence, and names the U.S. government as the defendant. The lawsuit said the defendants failed to “respond to warning signs and an explicit threat to commit a mass shooting” by the shooter, Robert Card.

Card was found dead by suicide two days after the shootings.

The attorneys have said the Army did not act despite being aware of Card’s mental health decline. Card’s mental health spiral led to his hospitalization and left him paranoid, delusional and expressing homicidal ideations, plaintiffs said. He even produced a “hit list” of those he wanted to attack, they said.

The Lewiston shootings led to new guns laws in Maine, a state with a long tradition of hunting and gun ownership. The laws prompted legal action on the part of gun rights advocates in the state and remain a contentious topic more than two years later.